Thread: A DIFFERENT Kind of Home Schooling....

Now we are paying to 'educate' the illiterate IA parents of iliterate children on how to help their anchor babies do homework! I wonder if the uneducated American parents are given the same preferential treatment to assist their American, English speaking children. When is this vicious cycle going to end?
A different kind of home schooling

Teachers work with immigrant parents to help them help their young students catch up. One goal is to prevent future dropouts.
By Sam Quinones, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
February 25, 2008

The son of poor laborers in rural Mexico, Ocario Gonzalez doesn't remember his parents ever helping with his schoolwork.

After struggling with his studies for a few years, Gonzalez left school at 12.

Now the 42-year-old South Los Angeles factory worker is trying to break that cycle with his daughter, Carolina.

When she entered Lillian Elementary School last year, 6-year-old Carolina was ill prepared, Gonzalez said. She knew little about letters, numbers, shapes or colors -- basic learning tools for most kindergartners.

She often cried before school, begging not to go.

Gonzalez and his wife, Maria Arellano, wanted to help her but didn't know how. But then the couple attended a workshop at the school designed specifically for immigrant parents.

There, kindergarten teachers taught parents simple ways to help their children and reinforce what they were learning in class: tracing numbers in salt on cookie sheets, making letters with Play-doh or simply conversing with them about their day.

"You're the first teachers of your children," Principal Susan Ahern told the parents. "We have them six hours a day; you have them for 18."

Every year thousands of kindergarten- age children of immigrants like Ocario Gonzalez arrive at schools across Southern California unprepared. Often, both parents work or they have so little education themselves that they are at a loss about how to tutor their children.

"Families bring their kids to school blind, knowing nothing," Maria Arellano said. "It's frustrating for the kid. What can they do? Nothing."

The lack of early parental help, educators say, is a major reason so many children of immigrants eventually drop out. If youngsters are unprepared for the basics as they enter school, they are likely to fall further behind as reading becomes essential to learning.

By the third and fourth grade, "they no longer want to try," said Kionna Hawkins, a Lillian kindergarten teacher who has taught upper grades in summer school and has seen the struggles of students who fell behind early. "They're very defeated."

Ahern believes it's a big problem in Southern California, with its ever increasing population of Mexican and Central American immigrants.

As school and city officials debate long-term education reforms, Lillian Elementary, where most of the nearly 700 students are children of Mexican immigrants, is taking some practical steps to assist parents in instructing their young children.

If the parents "really want to get them out of the cycle of poverty," Ahern said, "then they have to support their child's education."

Ahern is well prepared for the challenge. She once lived in Mexico, wrote her master's thesis on immigration and is fluent in Spanish.

She also has spent most of her 24-year career in early-childhood education. Before Lillian, she ran a Los Angeles Unified School District center for preschool and kindergarten students in South Gate. "My passion has always been in the primary grades," she said. "We have to get them early on."

Ahern arrived at Lillian in May.

That month, parents enrolled their kindergartners for the fall. Ahern and her teachers spent the day testing the children. They found that half of the 120 new kindergartners didn't know the basics, including how to write their names.

Parents were given exercises and goals to work their children toward during the summer. But when school started in September, the same 60 youngsters were still behind. L.A. Unified policy for focusing on children who are falling behind doesn't begin until second grade. [/b]

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me ... 9762.story

Parents were given exercises and goals to work their children toward during the summer. But when school started in September, the same 60 youngsters were still behind. L.A. Unified policy for focusing on children who are falling behind doesn't begin until second grade. [/b]

You are preaching to a wall! Gonzalez had 30 years (from 12 to 42) to do something about his lack of education and did nothing. His daughter will lose in the end and so will taxpayers.

Parents were given exercises and goals to work their children toward during the summer. But when school started in September, the same 60 youngsters were still behind.

This is because thier culture doe not value education....

This is just another reason why California is 16 billion dollars in the red...
and why the white exodus is taking place, and Calfornia is loosing it's tax base.... The whole country will end up paying for Calfornia and other States who catered to the illegall Criminals who are filling our schools and destorying our hospitals and ruining the econmomy but taking more in benifits than they pay in...

The best factor, in my opinion, that leads to academic success is for kids to see the parents value it. I grew up around adults who read for pleasure, pursued college, and did math for fun. Needless to say, I didn't drop out. Too many kids don't see that in their families, then we wonder why school seems extraneous to them.

What a surprise. The LAUSD is run by illegal invader sympathizers. Just look at the LAUSD Board.

This is a district that is FULL of illegal invaders. The rest are anchor babies, the majority of which care nothing about an education.

I occassionally ( when my stomach can tolerate it ) watch a televised LAUSD Board meeting. You should see all the ilegal invaders getting up to address the school board. Not one of them speak a word of English, so they are provided an interpreter.

They get up there and make threats, demands and try to intimidate the school board so their illegal and anchor children can fleece additional money out of our pockets. Of course, the board members sit like cowards and refuse to even question any of the remarks made by the illegal invaders. It makes me so angry that I could scream.

Originally Posted by NoBueno

What a surprise. The LAUSD is run by illegal invader sympathizers. Just look at the LAUSD Board.

This is a district that is FULL of illegal invaders. The rest are anchor babies, the majority of which care nothing about an education.

I occassionally ( when my stomach can tolerate it ) watch a televised LAUSD Board meeting. You should see all the ilegal invaders getting up to address the school board. Not one of them speak a word of English, so they are provided an interpreter.

They get up there and make threats, demands and try to intimidate the school board so their illegal and anchor children can fleece additional money out of our pockets. Of course, the board members sit like cowards and refuse to even question any of the remarks made by the illegal invaders. It makes me so angry that I could scream.

NoBueno,

I know exactly what you are saying...I have watched a few minutes of the televised LAUSD Board mtgs, and I become apoplectic! The few non-hispanic members just sit there and allow the IA's to shout, pound fists, and dictate their needs... all in Spanish, of course!

It's a tragedy that Prop 187 was overturned by a local Judge! Grey Davis could have filed an appeal, but he was too much of a coward! I don't see how we can reverse the situation now unless we undergo a massive re-districting. L.A. is now under the complete control of Mexico and it's agents. The only other alternative is for CA to undergo a depression severe enough that they will go back to Mexico...but even then, it's better to be poor in CA than in Mexico.

Originally Posted by AmericanMe

The only other alternative is for CA to undergo a depression severe enough that they will go back to Mexico...but even then, it's better to be poor in CA than in Mexico.

CA is heading into that depression right now and it is going to be bad. Some illegals will go back but not all of them. Well at least the situation will stabilize here so we are not 100% overrun by Mexicans! Just use this as a example for your state of what happens if you don't kick the illegals out.

Lets not forget Arnold's props 94-97 passed which gives the tribes authority to expand their gaming operations in exchange for millions of dollars going to the state.

I opposed these propositions because I did not want our governor to take the easy way out of this mess. Instead of addressing the real reason as to why this state is bankrupt ( everyone knows it's the illegal invaders ), the governor can now put a band aid on the problem and continue to fund his beloved invaders for a little while longer.

I guess we are going to need complete insolvency in this state before anyone will address the real issue as to why the State of California is in a fiscal crisis. It's the big pink elephant in the room that our elected officials want to continue to ignore

All the while, we have traitors like Nunez, Vilaregoisa ( spelling?) and many others who cannot pass legislation fast enough to continue to fund the illegal invasion that is destroying this state.

Remember, the residents in this state have tried twice to deal with this issue by passing prop 187 and prop 209. Both never saw the light of day once the courts intervened.

Funny how those laws which aid and abet the illegal invader are seldom thrown out by our courts, but those which attempt to address this issue by denying benefits and service to the illegals are seldom implemented.

The REconquistas on the LAUSD could care less about geting the IA kids up to speed....in fact it's quite the opposite...the more problems they have the better for the district b/c they then can ask for more $ for more "programs" to address these "inequities".. it's all about their job security. The more non-English speaking kids, the more kids that are behind the more teachers and assistants and special services are funded. It's become a lucrative racket for the Chicano administrators. If these kids would learn, graduate and be successful....all of these positions would be unnecessary.